Nels Thompson - Sep 18, 2005 12:18 am (#10804 Total: 10807)
ne penyajte na menya - ya ujdu iz stada! (Don't reproach me -
I'm leaving the herd!) --Vysotskij
Grand Illusion at Millenium in Rochester
Game day at Millenium in Rochester. Nick Anner and I played Grand
Illusion, Ted Raicer's game of the first 10 weeks or so of WW1 in the
West. I met Mike Stover, whom I work with but had never met. He's TALL.
Nick and I have been wanting to play Grand Illusion now for a couple of
weeks, and we spent the day hunched over this one, going pretty slowly,
and only finished 6 turns of the 15-turn game.
The game begins right after Liege and Mulhouse have fallen. The Allies
actually get the first activation. Things started well enough for my
Allies. The French took a couple of Plan 17 spaces in and around the
Vosges, and Nick decided to reduce the forts in Belgium instead of
besieging them and bypassing them, so the BEF set up shop along the
frontier and waited. On turn 3, Nick decided to take the VP hit and keep
the right wing strong instead of shipping a couple of corps off to the
East Front.
The French and German 4th Armies faced off in Neufchateau and
Luxembourg, with the German 4th getting by far the worst of it. This
drew a German reaction, and the Allies were in real good shape at the
start of September (turn 4), with the Germans struggling to cross out of
Belgium, and the French 6th Army already north of Paris ready to meet
them in Amiens.
On turn 5 disaster struck-- but it could have been worse. The CAP
(activation) difference was high that turn, and I spent 3 to bring back
reinforcements, taking a 9:5 difference all the way down to 9:2. I
believed I could threaten the entire right wing of the German army by
striking north with the 5th Army just east of Brussels. A Grand
Illusion, indeed.
The rules allow one general withdrawal for each side, once per game
(every unit of the withdrawing player gets to move.) I had this in my
hip pocket, and I reasoned that I would attack, and if things went badly
for me, I would order a general withdrawal. Even with only 2
activations, the withdrawal was my freebie to get into position should I
need it.
I didn't even get to make the attack. I reinforced 5th Army and the
storm struck the now weakened 6th Army. Fortunately for me, the storm
struck cautiously. Nick's activations were canceled near Amiens not
once, but twice. Still, he was able to disrupt all of 6th Army, and
threatened to destroy it outright when I issued my panicked withdrawal
order. 6th Army fell back to Paris and I immediately took my last
activation to refit them. (Paris taxis!)
But the virtual rout of 6th Army meant the line had to give ground all
the way from Paris to Verdun. BEF retreated. 5th Army retreated from its
position across the Belgian frontier. As the line lengthened, the Armies
thinned, and VP areas were exposed.
Nick struck with fury along the Marne. Chateau Thierry, Rhiems, and
Chalon fell. A gap yawned in the line toward Troyes.
Turn 6 dawned with improved Allied fortunes. Joffre had seen the light
(after the withdrawal, the Allies get more activations each turn), and
there was an opportunity to trap a German Army or even two at the Marne.
The BEF and the French 5th Army attacked, and fortune smiled as the
German corps commanders evidently had not received the order to go over
to the defensive. Twice on the "Fortunes of War" table, the Germans
counterattacked at great loss, instead of defending.
The Allies couldn't quite spring the trap, though, and we ended the game
with 18 German VPs to 5 Allied Plan 17 VPs. (The Germans win if they
have 6+ and 2x Allied.) This would have been a 7-turn scenario win, made
decisive by a missed Allied mandated assault early, and the high losses
inflicted on the French Army. It would have been 15 to 7 with more
prudent Allied play, and Turn 7 would have seen the Allies desperate to
take back a VP space.
It took us a few turns to get the hang of the mechanics. It's a roll to
hit game with a battle board not unlike Tigers in the Mist. There's a
priority order for the attacker and defender to fill the battle board
spaces. Cavalry features in a clever way. If you are defending, you can
put cav in the front line and just run away from enemy infantry, perhaps
denying your opponent the chance to double up against a different unit.
But enemy cav pins friendly cav. On the offensive, cav is almost
worthless other than for pinning defending cav. The BEF rocks. On T1 and
T2, BEF cav can force the Germans to slow, and BEF cav alone can attack
infantry from a reserve position.
The stacking limit is 8 corps, and there are 4 front line battle board
spaces and 4 reserve spaces. Fustest with the mostest is the motto here.
If you can overwhelm the defender, you can double up against his units.
Combat units have two steps, undisrupted (full strength, full movement),
and disrupted (flipped, slower and weaker). Disrupted units are
eliminated if they are hit, but they can be held out of the line if you
have enough undisrupted units. Two armies come together, and if one side
is fortunate enough to disrupt most or all of the other side, the
pressure is on. Activations can be taken two at a time, so it's possible
to hit an army and disrupt it, then hit it again and kill it before the
enemy can respond. Easier to say than to do, but the pressure is on once
the disruptions mount. You can save an army by burning an activation.
Retreat the army from the battle hex, then spend an activation to
undisrupt the units. Disrupted units undisrupt for free at the end of
the turn, though, so spending activations is an expensive way to save
them (or to press the advantage).
The fort rules are fun. Forts are awfully hard to take, but German siege
guns do take a bite. The early Allied defense gives some interesting
choices, whether to fight and hope to slow the Germans or to give ground
and leave the forts to their (perhaps) slow fate.
The single most entertaining element of the game, however, is the
"Fortunes of War" table. Every combat is preceded by a 2DR. The result
can cancel the battle, reverse the attacker and defender, reward one
side with an extra activation, offer a delaying tactic to the defender,
award tactical surprise to the attacker, and more. Nick and I both feel
that the table gives the game the feel of two green armies going at it.
Once contact is made, the behavior of the forces is unpredictable. Other
games simulate early-war effects with command restrictions or with
reduced unit capabilities. Illusion simulates stupidity. The situation
might call for an implacable advance, but your general will stop. You
might want your boys to hunker down and defend, but some excited officer
sends them over to the offensive.
With the Fortunes table and the roll to hit combat, there are wild
swings in combat outcomes. But other than Paris, there is no one battle
that decides things and in the aggregate, the armies did what we
expected of them-- we just had to be prepared for local surprises.